Gray's Epiphany
by evanesce24
Summary: Set right after the Daphne arc. Gray realizes that he likes Juvia back, but hides his feelings because he doesn't want a serious relationship. Includes an insane dream, a kidnapping, and a long-awaited hook-up.
1. The Epiphany

"Hey, Gray," Natsu said to his frienemy, Gray Fullbuster, who seemed a bit out of it that morning, "what's the matter? You've been acting screwy all morning. What gives? If anyone should be acting strange, it's me, since after all, I was the one who was inside a fake dragon controlled by a crazy woman and had the magic almost sucked out of me just yesterday. In fact, I am prepared to fight you for the rights to acting unusual!" By now, the fire dragon had his foot up on the table and was yelling down to Gray with an angry and excited energy.

"Sorry, Natsu, but I just don't feel up to fighting this morning. I don't know what it is, I just feel off. It's like something's missing." Gray stared at the table in front of him for a moment before noticing, "Say, isn't there normally breakfast here?"

"Um, yeah," Natsu said, giving Gray a worried look, "but you have to go get it from Mira or someone." He smiled widely. "Even in Fairy Tail, food doesn't just appear."

Gray seemed puzzled. "Yes, it does. Er, wait, no, Juvia usually grabs a breakfast for me." He gasped, suddenly realizing that in over half an hour of being in the Fairy Tail guild building, no one had done anything overly-affectionate or even remotely stalker-ish. "Wait, where's Juvia?" he said looking around for the girl with the short blue hair and deep, adoring, dark blue eyes lined with lovely lashes that were longer on her bottom lids, making her eyes look larger and more beautiful.

Gray shook his head. He didn't usually see Juvia in the way that she saw him, meeting her actions of love not with returned love but not with rejection either. Now, in her absence, he came to see that there was a part of her that he missed. Again, Gray shook his head, not comprehending why that would be. Clearing his mind, he got up and walked over to Mira for some breakfast.

"Say, Mira, have you seen Juvia today?" Gray asked her as he poked at his eggs.

"Why?" Mira teased him. "Do you liiiiiiike her now?" She sounded like Happy.

Gray slammed his fists down on the counter, "No! I was just wondering!"

Mira winked, "Whatever you say, Gray."

"It's the truth! I don't like her in that way!"

"Fine," Mira sighed, deciding she'd put her match-making skills to use later. "You could do a lot worse than her, you know. She really cares about you, she's beautiful, she's powerful. Actually, I doubt you could do any better, especially with that attitude." Gray shot her an annoyed and frustrated glare, which she rolled her eyes to. "Fine, she's right over there."

Excitedly, Gray spun around to see Juvia sitting at a table with Wendy. Her body was folded down over the table, and she seemed to be crying hard. It was only now that Gray noticed the heavy downpour that streamed from the sky and splattered the windows with water.

"Mira, what's the matter with Juvia?" Gray demanded. The sorrow she was displaying eerily reminded him of when he'd first met her and made the horrible mistake of referring to the rain as "gloomy."

"Maybe you should go talk to her," Mira shrugged, cleaning another mug Cana'd tried drinking from before deciding to just stick with her barrel. Mira is always attempting to get Cana to at least use a mug, but alas, there is no separating Cana and her beloved barrel.

Gray ran across the hall to where Juvia sat sobbing with Wendy, desperate to discover what had happened. He'd never really cared so much before, but today was different. Plus, Juvia was his friend. Just yesterday, the two of them used a unison raid to save Natsu from Daphne. He hadn't done many unison raids before, but he knew that people tend to get along better after using one together. Juvia even stopped creeping at Lucy for being a "love rival" after their battle against Vidaldus Taka in the Tower of Heaven.

He rushed to the crying Juvia, laying a hand on her bobbing back. "Juvia! What's happened? Are you okay?"

At his touch and the sound of his voice—two sensations she's treasured since they first met-Juvia ceased her sobbing and sat straight up with a somber expression on her face. The rain outside continued to fall in heavy sheets, but Juvia herself was very composed.

"Drip, drip, drop," she muttered seriously and quietly.

"Hm? Juvia, what's the matter?" Gray pleaded.

"Sorry, but Juvia's too tired now. Drip, drip, drop."

"Juvia, what's this about? Wendy?"

Wendy just shook her head. "Sorry, Gray, but I can't help you. In fact, I think you should just leave Juvia alone."

"What? But I don't understand?" Gray stumbled backwards and bumped into a very ticked off Levy McGarden.

"Oh, sorry, Levy," Gray apologized and tried to get Juvia to talk to him, but Levy grabbed the chain of his necklace (as he wasn't wearing a shirt) and spun him around.

"Yeah, you've got a lot to be sorry for, Gray!"

"What?"

Levy was about to spout something nasty—she does have a vast vocabulary, after all—but Juvia silenced her.

"Levy, it's okay," she whispered through returning tears.

Gray turned to her, but she had her pink umbrella open and was walking out the door. "Don't worry, Gray doesn't have to put up with Juvia anymore," she said to Gray, and turned to throw him a hurt and angry glare.

She soon disappeared into the rain, and Gray was left staring after her.

"Hey, Gray," Natsu said, appearing as if from nowhere right next to Gray's ear, which would normally startle him, but now he was too sad and confused. "Doesn't she normally call you –sama?"

"Yeah," Gray muttered, feeling dazed and out of place. "She does."

Later that day, since no one would tell him the reason Juvia was so upset with him, he decided to investigate on his own. Her sudden change in personality really worried him, so he headed to Fairy Tail's girls' dormitory, Fairy Hills.

He knocked on the front door, shouting, "Hellooooo! Anyone home?"

No one answered.

Determined to figure out his situation with Juvia, he crept around the building to try to find a different entrance. Soon, he came across a beach, and at the corner of the building that faced the beach was a wall of windows.

"Hm?" Gray approached the windows to see if he could get in through them and try to find Juvia, who he knew lived in Fairy Hills. Peering into the glass with his hands over his eyes to get rid of the glare, he saw that there was a large hot tub inside, but no girls.

_Perfect_, he thought. Gray pried open a window, climbed inside onto the rocks that dotted the edge of the tub and slipped into the hot water. As he was walking across the tub, his muscles relaxed and his worries started to melt away in the steam…

_Maybe I should just rest here a bit,_ he thought, reclining against the edge.

After a few minutes, he was startled by a loud, enraged shriek, "Gray!" Erza bellowed, "This is the _girls'_ dormitory!"

Terribly embarrassed and hating himself for being so careless, Gray tried to escape through the window, but Erza beat him to it and ended up thumping him hard on the head with the weapon of her Purgatory armor.

"Perverted oaf," he heard her mutter as he slipped under the surface of the water, unconscious.

Everything was black, but Gray could here the girls of Fairy Tail whispering to each other about what a jerk he was and how good it is that Juvia'd given up on him. He wasn't worth her energy.

Gray's eyes flew open to see Erza, Cana, Bisca, and Evergreen glaring down at him. He stood up, shakily, from where he stood next to the hot tub. "Where's Juvia? I really need to talk to her!"

Bisca scoffed at him, her hand dancing around the gun fastened to her hip. "Juvia deserves much better than you. You've hurt her enough, so you might as well just leave. Besides, she's moved on."

Gray's jaw dropped. "Moved on? To who?"

The girls giggled, not revealing any information. "At first, I didn't approve," Erza teased, "but now I see they make a pretty good couple."

"Damnit!" Gray shouted. "Just tell me where Juvia's room is! I need to talk to her about this insanity!"

"Juvia doesn't live here anymore," Evergreen explained. "She moved out of Fairy Hills some time ago, but if you must speak with her, here's her new address." The fairy slipped Gray a card with an address scrawled across it in the beautiful, watery loops of Juvia's handwriting that Gray had never appreciated.

"I'll go to her, and you'll see!" Gray screamed, bursting back through the window and running towards the town, the address pounding through his head.

Soon, he slowed as he approached a cute house on a street that ran along the river. The outside was painted blue with a darker blue roof. On the door hung a teru teru bozu, the very one that used to have a place on Juvia's fur shawl. This was definitely Juvia's house.

_So, the girls didn't lie to me, then_, Gray thought despite the truth that, with Juvia's handwriting, they were very unlikely to be lying at all.

He heard several voices chatting inside, and preparing himself for the worst, Gray gave the door a sharp knock. The voices hushed, but the door soon opened just a crack.

"Gray?" It was Wendy who answered the door, but she wouldn't open it any wider than her own head. "What…?"

"Please, I must speak to Juvia!"

Wendy became nervous, stuttering, "Um, I'm s-sorry, G-gray, but I c-can't l-l-et you in, r-right now."

"Why not? Why are you even here!" Gray was furious by how much trouble this was all causing him but also by how much it appeared that he really did care for Juvia.

"I-I c-can't tell you. It's a s-secret."

Gray stepped forward, pushing the door open. "I've had enough of secrets. Where's Juvi-."

Gray was stunned into silence by what he saw in Juvia's living room. She sat on a white couch, her tea resting on walnut coffee table. Sitting in chairs and on the couch all around her were people Gray knew: Macao, Levy, Mystogan, Happy, even Aquarius and Gemini, but most surprising were Jellal and his thought projection, Seigrain. Though Gray had no idea why this odd group of people had gathered, he could only focus on one thing: Siegrain's arm resting across Juvia's shoulders.

"Gray's not allowed to be here," Juvia said.

"Why not?"

"Because Juvia and her friends are in the middle of a meeting!" Juvia said, standing up. "This is the blue-haired club. You have to have blue hair to come here, and Gray doesn't, so he has to leave. Sorry, Gray, but Juvia's done." Then, Juvia sat back down next to Seigrain.

Suddenly, Jellal and Mystogan were beside him. "Believe me," Jellal whispered, "this is even more awkward for us than it is for you." Mystogan nodded in agreement.

"What the hell?" Gray shouted. "No, no, no, wait! I have blue hair too, see! I can join!" He tugged at his hair, showing the group members.

"Hm," Macao said, inspecting it. "Looks more like black to me."

"No! It's dark blue, like yours!"

"Not quite," Levy announced from Juvia's computer, an internet window open in front of her with Gray's picture on it. "According to the wiki, your hair is black."

"According to the _what_?" Gray couldn't stand it anymore, this whole day was just getting stranger and stranger, and he couldn't take it anymore. He leapt over to Juvia, kneeling in front of her after moving the coffee table out of the way. He took her hand and poured his heart out to her, telling her how much he missed her all day, that he really did care about her as she cared for him, that using a unison raid with her the day before had opened his eyes to how much they truly were meant to be together: like she always said.

Juvia pulled her hand back from Gray, uninterested and unmoved. "Please. Gray's never appreciated Juvia, and now he's just being bothersome. Aquarius!"

"With pleasure!" Aquarius rejoiced, raising her jug over her head a sweeping Gray away in a massive wave of hot water.

Dripping wet, Gray opened his eyes to find himself, yet again, on the tile floor of the Fairy Hill's open bath area. But this time, instead of Erza, Cana, Bisca, and Evergreen standing above him, he was met with Juvia's face.

"Oh, Juvia was so worried," she said, smiling with watery eyes, "Gray-sama."

"J-Juvia…" Gray was amazed to see where he was, trying to make sense of it all. "Wait, why are you dating Jellal?"

"You're what?" Erza shouted, and Juvia's eyes grew to half the size of her head in fear of Erza's anger at her as a love rival. At first, Gray thought that this was a dream, seeing Erza so upset over Juvia with Jellal, but she soon composed herself. "Gray, we explained to Juvia how much you seemed to care about her, and she's decided to forgive you. Don't waste her love this time." Though to Gray, it seemed more like a threat than advice.

"Oh, is Gray-sama okay?" Juvia asked him. "Erza-san hit Gray-sama's head pretty hard."

They both stood, and after coming to a tough decision, Gray spoke. "Juvia…" he was tempted to run a hand through her short, spiky hair, but figured that as much as he'd like to, it wouldn't make this any easier. "Juvia, I'm so sorry for taking you for granted. I care about your feelings and all but…" He was lost in her shimmering sapphire eyes, which were just waiting for the response she'd been waiting for since she first met him. "But, while I feel like that, I don't feel the same way you do."

Juvia's heart shattered into many tiny droplets of water, but she knew it would be okay.

"Juvia will always love Gray-sama!" she said as he left through the window.

"You're a great friend, Juvia," he called back, walking towards the town.

Deep down, Gray Fullbuster knew that he could never feel right without Juvia around. He loved her. But a relationship, he felt, would only complicate things, so he had to let her go. _I'm such an idiot!_ He thought to himself as he walked away from Fairy Hills and the love of his life.


	2. The Rescue

Juvia ate her lunch across the table from her beloved Gray. Next to them, Natsu and Lucy flirted (though it was unintentional, and they didn't see it themselves). To her dismay, Juvia's Gray avoided her gaze, not wanting to feel pressured to flirt as well.

Little did she know, he felt strong romantic feelings for her, as he'd discovered the day before, and just wasn't ready to voice them. He finished off his sandwich, returned the plate to Mira, and walked off, leaving Juvia feeling ignored and a bit hurt. But no matter how much he acted like this, she would never give up on him again. Ever.

Soon after lunch, Gray and the rest of Team Natsu left for a job, so Juvia—left without a Gray to adore—began to walk home to Fairy Hills. As she moved step-by-step along the dirt path that lead to the building, she felt an unsettlingly familiar feeling that struck her back to her dark past.

A drizzle began to tumble from the sky, which was sunny as of the moment before, and she wished she still carried her pink umbrella with her. She stopped walking when the familiar, ominous sense was right in front of her. The rain grew steadier, and a slim, waving form rose from the ground.

"Non, non, non…" Sol chanted as his brown suit and green, grassy hair took shape. "What was the sun doing out if Juvia's in town?"

"Juvia is happier now, and she is no longer burdened by the constant rain," Juvia responded. She tried to keep her cool, but this was hard considering the unusual appearance of another ex-Phantom Lord and Element 4 wizard in Magnolia. She couldn't shake the feeling that Sol, her former friend, was here to hurt her new and deeply cherished friends, as he once had.

"But you are more powerful in the rain, no?" Sol inquired, continuing to sway from side to side and wave his arms slowly. "Why would you ever want it to stop?"

"Yes, Juvia is more powerful, invincible, in the rain. Drip, drip, drop," she said sternly as she took on her more serious persona, which she usually holds when not directly thinking about or staring at Gray. The rain began to pour buckets, accepting Sol's challenge. "What is Sol in Magnolia for? To hurt Fairy Tail?"

"Non, non, non! I simply wish to see how an old Element 4 member has been since Phantom Lord was disbanded."

"Juvia is well, but why does Sol care so much?" Juvia asked suspiciously. She and Sol were sent together to capture Lucy a few months ago, back when they were teammates, but she didn't get along with him as well as Aria and Totomaru.

Just as Sol leaned in closer with a devious look on his face, Juvia (still perfectly calm and literally in her element) heard a voice behind her.

"Juvia!" Gajeel called, running up along the path. "I caught Sol's scent, why's he here?" Gajeel narrowed his eyes at the noodlish body of the earth wizard, who cowered back slightly, well aware of the Iron Dragon's power.

"Sol says he's here to check in with Juvia, but Juvia is suspicious," Juvia explained, and Gajeel held a threatening pillar of iron under Sol's wobbly face.

"Non, non, non. You shouldn't be suspicious, for I mean no harm to you or your friends in Fairy Tail," Sol serenely defended himself. "It was Totomaru's idea to come ask the two of you something. I'm very glad you came Gajeel, for now I can tell you both together. Totomaru wishes to gather up the Element 4 and form an independent, unstoppable team. You, of course, are welcome to join us, Gajeel, as a valuable member of the Phantom Lord guild."

"Gajeel-kun and Juvia are members of Fairy Tail, now," Juvia asserted. "Drip, drip, drop."

"Of course, of course. Pardon my mistake!"

Gajeel lowered his pillar, which melted back into his arm, and turned back toward the Fairy Tail guild building, "Sorry, but tell Toto we aren't interested. Phantom Lord and the Element 4 are gone. Leave that be and move on, Sol."

"Au revoir, Gajeel!" Sol said, unphased by Gajeel's rejection. "We're really only interested in Juvia, anyway. You don't have to join. It's the Element 4, not 5, after all."

As Gajeel wasn't really listening to what Sol was saying (as if he ever had), he only raised a hand in goodbye and continued walking.

Juvia pushed past Sol, muttering about how he'd be nothing but a mud puddle if he ever tried to lay a hand on her Gray, and soon arrived at her home in Fairy Hills. She walked up to her room and laid down on her bed, not bothering with her muddy boots or wet clothes. Seeing Sol again after all that had happened had jostled her emotions. She couldn't help but think about how the rest of Phantom Lord thought of her now. Was she the treacherous, love-struck bobble-head who jumped ship for a guy and dragged Gajeel along with her? She dozed off mid-afternoon, never moving from her position on the bed, and dreamt of Gray, as per usual, but there was something in the background this time. It was Master Jose, the first one to accept her rain as an asset instead of a burden, looking terribly betrayed. Aria and Sol were with him. Suddenly, the ice palace that surrounded her and Gray in the dream melted, and the roaring flames of Totomaru engulfed the image.

She awoke in the middle of the night with his face burned into her mind. There was mud on her bed from her boots, which were half off her feet, and her messy hair had pushed her white and blue hat off her head to where it lay, fallen on the floor. It was then that she smelled smoke coming from down the hall and went to investigate, taking her boots off for comfort's sake and smoothing out her bedhead.

Team Natsu returned to the guild the next morning, and Gray immediately noticed Juvia's absence. "Hey, have you seen Juvia around?" he asked Laki, the wood mage, but having just arrived home from a request as well, she hadn't. He saw Levy and Gajeel talking over their breakfasts (Jet and Droy sitting awkwardly close to Levy and sending Gajeel jealous death glares) and asked them.

"She was on her way to Fairy Hills last night," Gajeel offered, sipping his tea and not putting any visible emotion into what he told of. "I followed and caught up with her, because I smelled our old guildmate, Sol, who was in the Element 4 with her. He was trying to recruit us into a small team. Totomaru's idea, I guess."

"What?" Gray shouted, his jaw dropping. "Did she go with him?"

"I don't know," Gajeel shrugged. "I left after he said he wasn't there to hurt Fairy Tail. They mainly wanted only the old Element 4 members, so I got out of the situation."

Gray just stared at him, dumbstruck. How could he leave her alone with Sol? His Juvia alone with someone trying to take her away from Fairy Tail. The sudden realization that he'd thought of her as 'his Juvia' struck him with the still unfamiliar but good feeling of romantic connection to a person. Thankfully, Levy reassured him, "Don't worry. Juvia got back to Fairy Hills safely yesterday afternoon. She looked serious, and it was raining, so I assumed something'd happened. She went up to her room like always, and that's the last I saw of her." Gray was relieved that Juvia hadn't left with Sol, but he wasn't completely at ease yet.

"Natsu! You're dead!" Laki shouted from across the guild.

Everyone turned to see her standing in the doorway holding a charred bit of wood. "What did I do?" Natsu asked nonchalantly through a mouthful of food.

"You tried to break into Fairy Hills last night, didn't you!" she shrieked. "We already had Gray in there a couple days ago, but at least he didn't trash the place! You burned everything in my room! You can't go in my room—it's all wood! You can't be in Fairy Hills at all! Gosh, I go on one overnight request, and my room is ash when I get back!" she ranted.

"I didn't break into your room last night," Natsu said with a quizzical look on his face. "I was on a request as well."

"Then exactly how did the contents of room 200 get burned to a crisp?"

"Wait…" Gray muttered, doing the math in his head. Erza's in rooms 201-205, right?"

"Yeah, why? She was with you last night," Laki points out.

"True, but Juvia's in 206, the last room in the hall, so she was the only in that hallway last night and the closest to your room," Gray added.

Natsu looked at Gray as if he was due for a mental examination. "Are you suggesting that the water mage burned down Laki's room?"

"No, but what about….. Hey, Gajeel—" Gray trailed off and turned to Gajeel, but he and Team Shadow Gear were gone.

Gray, Laki, Lucy, Erza, and Natsu found Gajeel and Levy (Jet and Droy most likely shooed away by Gajeel) in Laki's destroyed room, Gajeel gnawing at a bit of charred metal. "Hey!" Laki shouted, reaching for it in vain. "That's part of one of my torture devices! You can't eat it!"

"They're all ash anyway, stop whining," Gajeel told her and turned to Gray. "Totomaru was here. And look," he gestured to the floor, which was soaked to the extent that there were puddles in the lower patches and a thin film of water over the rest.

"They fought?" Gray wondered allowed, and Gajeel nodded. "But why were they here in the first place?"

"Beats me, but he was definitely trying to get her to join the Element 4 again after she turned down Sol. Looks like she really didn't want to go." Besides the flooding, there were also gashes in the walls and ceiling from Juvia's Water Slicer attack.

"We have to go after them," Gray insisted. Gajeel nodded solemnly.

Juvia opened her eyes in a big dark room lit slightly by a few torches. As her eyes grew used to the lack of sufficient lighting, she saw that the walls were rough and uneven near the high ceiling, but smoothly cut from earth closer to the floor. Were they partly underground, somewhere?

"Oh, so you're awake, then?" Totomaru's condescending voice carried from the shadows, where his face soon appeared, much like in her dream. "So, have you decided to join us willingly, or do we still have to keep you tied up for a bit longer?"

Juvia's wrists were bound together and to a stone column by a smooth rope. Her ankles were also tied together, and she laughed internally at her former teammates' forgetfulness. "Drip, drip, drop," she murmured. "How can you contain the power of water with mere rope?" She asked and almost let her wrists fall away from the ropes, which would normally pass through her water body with minimal effort. However, no matter what she did, the smooth ropes held even her body of liquid. "What is this?" she breathed, terror-struck.

"Just a little something we picked up from a girl we ran into along our search for you. She was traveling with friends and gladly lent of some of this amazing rope when we told her we needed it to help you out of a sticky situation. You can't use magic when bound by the rope, so don't think it will be so easy to escape back to your Fairy Fail friends. You're better than them. You're Element 4." He moved closer to her with each word until he was whispering in her ear, the way Gray always did in her fantasies.

"Milliana?" Juvia whispered to herself, remembering the cat-obsessed girl they met in the Tower of Heaven just after Phantom Lord was demolished.

"So you do remember her! That's nice," Totomaru grinned as he lit more torches around the room, revealing Sol and Aria but nothing and no one else. The torchlight danced on their features and illuminated the very real possibility that if her beloved Gray and the others really were coming to save her, as she hoped they were, they'd have very little chance of returning unharmed. They barely won the first time around, and that was with the entire guild.

Totomaru saw this on her face as she hung her head, and he grinned. "Don't worry," he told her, caressing her cheek and tucking her long bangs behind her ear. "As promised, we won't bring any harm to Gray Fullbuster, but as for the others, we can't say."

A tear fell off her cheek through the dry air, soaking into the dry earth.

The group of Fairy Tail mages walked along the hard ground towards the rubble of the half-rebuilt Phantom Lord building that Gajeel smashed after the point in rebuilding it was gone. No one's touched it since.

Gray couldn't help thinking about how an over-confident fire wizard could've beaten and captured Juvia: an arguably unbeatable (when she's really trying) water wizard. _She was probably holding back because she didn't want to hurt an old teammate_, he decided, considering how she never puts all of her power into fights within the guild.

Suddenly, he felt something flop over his head, and Natsu ran up from behind him, laughing. "It's Juvia's hat," Natsu explained when Gray pulled it off his head and just held it in his hands like a little treasure. "I found it in her room, her boots too, but I figured I'd just bring the hat."

Gray was about to thank Natsu for bringing it along, but thought it would reveal his hidden feelings for Juvia, so he only tucked it into his pants and said it would come in handy, since Natsu could follow Juvia's scent.

"I know where they are!" Gajeel nearly roared, offended that Gray would think they needed Natsu's help. "Totomaru is both predictable and nostalgic. The ruins of our guild are the first place he'd go to set up the Element 4 as an independent team."

A steady rain was falling around them, and Gray's heart jolted. His Juvia must be close.

Juvia squeezed her eyes shut as the three elements peppered her with reasons to join them. "May as well join us now, of your own free will, before we have to threaten your little friends again," Totomaru whispered, his lips right next to her ear.

"Oh, the sorrow, of it!" Aria wailed, letting a burst of air escape his power and send a slab of concrete flying upward from where it made up part of the ceiling.

Rain poured through the hole along with familiar, friendly voices. "What just happened?" "They must be over their!" "Juvia!"

Juvia's heart thudded because the last voice, the one that called her name with such determined passion, was Gray's. "Drip, drip, drop," she said as a way to show the others that all Hell was about to break loose.

Team Natsu, as well as Levy and former Phantom Lord member Gajeel leaped down from the gaping ceiling of the unfinished basement. The three elements, previously very confident began to look just a bit worried for a second, as they hadn't been expecting the iron dragon, but quickly recovered themselves, remembering their power.

The battle began, and though the room was large and had a wide whole in the ceiling, the roaring bursts of flame and gusts of powerful wind laced with spells soon filled the room, making it dangerous for everyone. Totomaru occupied Natsu's efforts with Lucy uselessly trying to help but failing. Sol had ensnared Gajeel and Erza in a terrifying game of whack-a-mole. And Aria stood in the corner, causing winds to rush around everyone, as was the strategy of the Element 4. It disoriented their opponents while the elements themselves were used to it. Juvia looked on, her stomach sinking. Fairy Tail was doing okay, but the elements had some dirty tricks up their sleeve. Tricks Juvia was well accustomed to.

A few moments into the clash, Juvia felt a knife working at the rope around her ankles and looked down to see Gray's silky black head just next to her leg as he concentrated on freeing her. "Gray-sama…."

"Hey, Juvia," he said as he finished at her ankles and stood up to free her wrists. Juvia couldn't help but think that if they stood in the same position under different circumstances, it would almost look like a hug. "Are you okay?"

Juvia couldn't help herself, Gray was genuinely worried about her well-being and had lead a team to come and rescue her. Now, he was standing right in front of her, and though her arms were free, his hands remained resting on her back, which leaned against the stone post. "Juvia's fine," she said, moving her newly freed hands up to his bare chest.

At her touch, he drew back out of fear of revealing his feelings should he get too caught up in the moment, though she saw it as the usual rejection. "We should get out of here," he said. She nodded.

Most of the others saw that Juvia had been rescued and began drawing back, but a flash of yellow caught all of their eyes.

No one had thought about who Levy was fighting until she showed up, leaping into Aria's airspace of doom waving her pen through the air and shouting, "Despair!"

It all happened simultaneously. Levy's body gave a jerk, crunching up into a ball, and falling limp, Gajeel dove to catch her, and the solid script "despair" hit Aria, sending him into a spiral of sadness. He collapsed, tears rushing from his uncovered eyes, weeping about the sorrow of the world.

Erza lead the fairies out of the old Phantom Lord basement, Gajeel carrying Levy (who was still), and Gray and Juvia hesitating just long enough for Totomaru to jeer, "Fine, leave, Juvia. I know you love him, but he will never reciprocate like I would. Go with him, if you really want that! After all the years I've tried to get you to love me, you now have an unrequited love of your own to be let down by. How's it going so far?"

The rain tumbled down over the wizards, and Juvia's lip trembled. "Hey!" Gray defended her. "Juvia's a Fairy Tail wizard, and any of us would do anything for her, so I won't stand by and let you talk to her like that. She's not to me what you were to her. She's better than the both of us, so shut up."

"Gray-sama…"

"Let's go, Juvia," he said, gripping her arm and jumping with her Sierra, which carried them out of the basement.

Some ways away, Gajeel kneeled over Levy, who was lying, still as stone, on the wet ground. "Shorty! Shorty, wake up!" he yelled, appearing angry with the wounded girl, but to those who knew him, this was how he dealt with hardship. He sent and pillar of iron smashing into the mud when she still didn't respond.

Juvia put a hand to her mouth. While she was busy being rescued, her friends were risking their lives. And now, the price had been paid. Another tear rolled down her snowy cheek. Levy.

Erza shoved Gajeel out of the way and bent over the small girl's body, thumping on her chest and giving the occasional mouth-to-mouth breath. In turn, the rest of the group held their breath, waiting for Levy's wide grin to light up the sky like it always did. Even Gajeel was having trouble hiding the threat of tears. Levy.

After Erza had been working on Levy for the longest minute of all of their lives, her body, which reminded Gajeel of a young canary in her cute orange-yellow dress and separate, wing-like sleeves, jerked. She sat up, coughing, and hugged Erza before springing onto Gajeel. "I would have been truly dead if you hadn't caught me and brought me out of that airspace, Gajeel," she said, her thin arms wrapped around his muscular neck and her face buried in his long hair.

Gajeel, stunned, tentatively rested his hands on her back, "I'd never let anything happen to you, Levy," he said, but catching the extra romance in the words, added, "'Cause your buddies, Sir Runsalot and Plantman would never forgive me."

"Right," Levy nodded as Gajeel gently removed her from his head and set her firmly on the ground with a discrete wink.

The group was on its way back to Magnolia in Erza's magic four-wheeler. Erza driving, Lucy, Gajeel, and Levy sleeping (Levy held tight in Gajeel's studded arms), and Natsu passed out from the motion sickness. Juvia and Gray sat next to each other, looking out the window, the rain now reduced to a drizzle and still shrinking.

"Did Gray-sama mean what he said to Toto-kun," Juvia asked without meeting her beloved's eyes. "That she was better."

"Well, you are a far better person than Totomaru, and in our situation as it parallels what you had with him back then, you played my role better than I do now." Juvia only sighed. "What's wrong?"

"Every day, Juvia sees hints that Gray-sama likes her, that he feels the same way back. But Juvia sees it all now very clearly."

"Y-you do?" Gray wondered, thinking his feelings had slipped out of their cage inside of him. "Then shouldn't you be happy?"

"Why would Juvia be happy? All of those pieces of evidence, all of those things that Juvia clings to for dear life don't matter at all. Gray-sama is so good, he would do those things for anyone else in the guild. Juvia only twisted them to look like love. Even this whole mess. It's no different than how Gray-sama came to rescue Lucy from Juvia and Phantom Lord just a few months ago."

Gray, terrified that he may lose Juvia again, as he did a few days before, suddenly reached out and grabbed her hand fervently. "Juvia," he said, staring into her oceanic eyes that looked like they could suck him up and drown him with their dazzlingness. "Juvia, I care about you a great deal more than most other people… even within the guild. Everyone in Fairy Tail is my family. But you'll always have a special place with me." Back in the hot tub room of Fairy Hills, after he'd woken up from the knock-out induced dream to see her face smiling down at him, he'd resisted the urge to run a hand through her short, spiky, blue hair. Now, he just couldn't help himself. He let go of her hands with one of his and let it travel from her hairline to the nape of her neck, reveling in the sensation of every sky-colored strand that came into contact with it along the way. "Oh, I almost forgot." He reached down to pull her somewhat misshapen hat from his belt. Straightening it out and planting it on her head, he grinned and winked. "There's the Juvia we all know and love."

The words replayed in Juvia's mind. _They all love Juvia. That includes Gray-sama. Gray-sama loves Ju—_

The thought was too joyous for her to even finish, so she only let her head fall onto Gray's strong shoulder as sleep overtook her.


	3. The Scheme

Juvia awoke in her bed at Fairy Hills, confused. _Hadn't Juvia dozed off in the car with Gray-sama?_ she thought, and she panicked when it struck her that it was all too good to be true. It must have been a dream.

She pushed the blanket off herself and got up. She was still wearing her white and blue dress, but her boots, which she thought she'd fallen asleep wearing, were standing neatly next to the door, and her hat, which she also could not remember removing, was sitting on the table next to them. If her hat and boots were neatly put away, had it all been real after all? Come to think of it, she had just flopped herself onto the bed, but this morning she was nicely lying under the blanket.

She looked around quickly, snapping to attention when she heard someone moving around in her kitchen. She slowly crawled out of the bed to check it out, hoping it wasn't Sol or someone trying to recruit her again, like Totomaru had the night before. Water Lock ready to burst at her trembling fingers, she rounded the corner. "Caught!" she shouted, trapping Gray Fullbuster in a sphere of rain water. "Oh! It's only Gray-sama!" She quickly released him and kneeled on the floor next to him. "Juvia is so sorry. Juvia thought Gray-sama was an intruder."

"It's fine," Gray said, not meeting her eyes. After she fell asleep on the way home from the Phantom Lord ruins, he spent the rest of the ride fiddling with her short, blue hair and thinking about their time together. When he first met her, she'd put him in a Water Lock just like this one, and since then, he sort of missed that fight. At least, if she'd let herself engage in a serious battle with him, he'd be able to hang out with her without letting his feelings out too much. On top of that, there was something about her water, the way it felt to be suspended in it, that gave him a ticklish feeling he'd for so long tried to deny.

"Why is Gray-sama here? Didn't he and Juvia fall asleep in the car?"

"You were still asleep when we got back to the guild," he explained, "and after the kind of day you had, I thought you should get your rest. So, instead of waking you up, I just kind of brought you home." By now he was blushing furiously and Juvia's heart was thudding so hard she was sure he could hear it as well.

"G-Gray-sama was making tea?" she asked, turning her attention to the shattered tea pot Gray had dropped when she Water Locked him.

"Yeah." Gray gathered the larger pieces of the pot and stood up, not wanting to lead her on too much. "I just figured."

Juvia could see that her Gray was uncomfortable, and she was sure it was because she was twisting it all up in her head again, like she did with everything, and like she had the day before when he said everyone loved her. _Gray only likes Juvia as a close friend,_ she told herself. "Well, Juvia will go freshen up now," she said, turning away to let him off the hook.

She grabbed a fresh dress and walked to the bathroom for a shower to calm her nerves. The water sprinkled over her, carrying away the grime of the days before. Showers were unique for Juvia, with her body of rain water. In them, she almost felt at home. Not like she did in the rain, but close. She stepped out and got dressed, wrapping a towel over her head to dry her spiky hair, and made her way back to the kitchen. Gray had left, but the shards of teapot were swept up, and her spare sat on the counter, filled with fresh Earl Grey, her favorite because of its name.

While Juvia was in the shower, Gray had swept up the shattered teapot, found her spare, and brewed some more, setting it on the counter for her to enjoy when she got out. It suddenly occurred to him how boyfriend-ish all this looked. He'd carried her to her bed from the guild building, tucked her in, waited for her to wake up, and brewed two pots of tea for her. This couldn't go on. If it did, she would see through him for sure, and everything would get far too complicated.

He liked Juvia. A lot. But even though he liked her, he wasn't ready for a long-term relationship. If he told anyone this, they wouldn't understand. He didn't understand it himself! If he liked her so much, why couldn't he just suck it up and date her?

Whatever the reason, Gray left the tea on the counter and, when he heard the shower shut off, went back to the guild, knowing that if he stuck around to see Juvia, fresh and clean, walking out of the bathroom with the steam rolling around her, he would definitely drop a couple unintentional hints towards his feelings, and he couldn't have that.

Juvia walked into the guild, where everyone was laughing, fighting, and drinking, though it was only just past lunch. She spotted Gray sitting at the bar and rushed over to join him. Even though she didn't drink much, Mira slid the same drink Gray had over to Juvia when she sat to the left of him and winked.

Gray didn't seem to notice Juvia (of course he did, he just didn't want her to know that), and kept talking to Cana, who sat on his right, and Macao, who was next to her. Juvia's face grew grim as she saw, in her mind, Gray rejecting her for the brunette in the blue bikini top. Lucky for Cana, Macao soon stood up, saying he had taken a request he had to get to and invited her to come along. Cana accepted and took his hand, but whispered some to Mira before leaving with Macao. Juvia noticed in the way they walked and looked at each other that they seemed strangely like a couple. It was silly of her to see Cana as a love rival when she was so with Macao. She sighed, wishing she and Gray could look like that.

Gray hung his head back as he gulped down most of his drink, and Juvia took a sip of her own, marveling at how the light shimmered on his black hair. He set the glass down with a sigh, wondering how he should deal with his feelings for Juvia, new feelings he was just getting used to. Yesterday, when he said everyone loved Juvia, he truly did mean that to include himself, and not just in a familial way.

"More, Gray?" Mira asked and poured some of the drink into Gray's empty cup without waiting for an answer.

"Thanks, Mira," Gray said and took a sip. The drink tasted slightly different than the first cup had, but he just wrote it up to the speed at which he drank it.

Juvia noticed, though Gray didn't, that nearly half of the mages who just moments before filled the guild had left on requests, and many were on their way out, slowly emptying the building. "Mira-chan, why are so many people out on jobs today?" Juvia asked, taking another sip of her drink.

"This year's S-class candidates will be announced next week," Mira told her. "Everyone's trying to beef up their reviews for when Master and the current S-class mages, including myself, look them over."

"That time of year again," Gray laughed, taking another swig of the drink. A few sips in, and he was starting to feel a bit funny.

Gajeel and Levy came up to give Mira the flyer of the request they'd taken, he carried her off, both of them snickering as they looked at Gray and Juvia over their shoulders. Lucy also ran up to the bar, "Mira! Natsu, Erza, and I are going on this request! Bye!" she shouted, handing Mira a flyer and flying out of the guild.

Juvia looked after her, wondering why Lucy thought she even had a chance of being nominated for S-class. Surveying the guildhall, she noticed that Gray, Mira, and herself were the only three left in Fairy Tail. Even more peculiar was the fact that Gray was on a team with Lucy, Natsu, and Erza, and yet he still sat there, next to Juvia, instead of going along with them.

Gray, clutching his glass, also had this thought, but his mind only stopped on it for a second. The focus of his mind at the moment was this strange feeling that began to overtake him. He tilted the glass back until it was empty again, though he was sure Mira had mixed something in it that made him feel this way. It was like another epiphany: not only did he have feelings for Juvia, but he had to voice them.

The white-haired matchmaker, sensing that her plan was beginning to unfold, subtly removed herself from the scene and backed into the kitchen, wiping a glass.

Juvia saw it on Gray's face. He was hunched over the counter, his right fist clutching the empty glass, his eyes squeezed shut as he tried to hold in the urge to announce his love for Juvia to the world. In a matter of seconds, he lost the battle with the emotions he had sworn he would always keep contained. His mind resigned, letting his heart take over.

Juvia, who was taking another sip of her drink, gasped and slammed her glass down on the counter, alcohol nearly coming out of her nose from shock, when she felt Gray's icy hand on her leg.

_Gray-sama is touching, Juvia._ Juvia's eyes grew wide, and her breath caught in her throat. _Is this really happening to Juvia?_

Gray's right hand finally loosened its hold on the empty cup, letting go of it and replacing his left hand on her leg as it migrated to her back.

"Gray-sama…." Juvia whispered. She was happy that Gray was finally returning her feelings, but she was also confused.

"Juvia, I've come to realize over the past few days that I have feelings for you. I tried to hold them back, but I just can't anymore. "

Happiness was threatening to cause Juvia to faint again, as it had in the car the day before, but she forced herself to keep conscious. She didn't want Gray to have any reason to divert from his current path. "Juvia doesn't know what to say."

"Then, you don't have to say anything," Gray told her as he bent down and picked her up, sliding his right hand under her knees and his left hand to her left upper arm to hold her close to his bare chest. "Just tell me I'm not making a fool of myself."

Juvia reached a tentative hand up to his cheek and said, "Juvia could never see Gray-sama as a fool."

Smiling widely and looking down into Juvia's excited, shining eyes, Gray ran towards the storage closet. Juvia wrapped her arms around Gray's neck and pulled herself closer. She let go with one arm to quickly turn the knob of the storage room door, but when she reached down to it, she noticed the door was already ajar, waiting for them.

Ignoring the curiousness of the situation, Gray kicked the door open further and they moved into the dark. He walked backwards to close the door with his back, and as soon as it was shut, Juvia pulled herself up to kiss him.

Gray kissed her back and steadily set her down on a large barrel of alcohol. "Juvia's been waiting for this day for so long!"

Gray smiled in the dark and touched his forehead to hers, a hand at the nape of her neck. "Me too."

Juvia, a very passionate person, was overcome with a sudden spout of zeal as it suddenly got very hot between ice and water. Gray'd been without pants for a while already, and now he was removing the dark blue vest from Juvia's white dress. _She wears so much clothes_, Gray thought. He wasn't complaining, just observing, as he liked every adorable detail that made up Juvia.

Mira was in the kitchen, preparing the guild dinner, and as she peeled carrots over the sink, she smiled at her own skill with match-making around the guild. A pitter patter at the window caught her attention.

It was raining outside. It wasn't a careening thunder storm, and it wasn't the steady, gloomy rain that followed Juvia everywhere until she met her Gray, but it was a fierce rain that showered the land with life. It was the kind of rain that the sun still shone through, the kind of rain that fed rushing, giddy rivers, the kind of rain that poured beauty to budding flowers and trees that grasped at the sky. It was rain that sang.

Mira knew what this rain meant and couldn't help her proud smile. _Done it again, Mira. Another perfect couple._

After a while, Juvia and Gray heard the guild door open and close, and two sets of footsteps sounded through the hall. Juvia shot Gray a smile, and even in the complete darkness, he could see it's sparkle.

"Mira!" Cana called.

Mira poked her head out of the kitchen and rushed over to Cana and Macao, beaming. Cana, knowing what Mira's excitement meant, smiled as well, and the two girls grabbed each other's arms and jumped up and down ecstatically. They tried to be as quite as possible, though, so as not to bother the couple in the closet.

Macao smiled too, but wasn't one for jumping. Cana let go of Mira and fell into him. He caught her and gave her a little kiss. "It's about time they got together," he whispered.

"Yeah, I could see how Gray felt; it was written all over his face, after all!" Mira told them. "So I slipped a little something into his drink that makes people act the way they truly feel, uninhibited by social restrictions."

"Where are they, anyway?" Cana wondered.

"I left the door of the storage closet open for them, and they ended up taking it."

"What?" Cana gasped. "That's our hook-up spot! Man, if they touched one of my barrels…." Cana let go of Macao and started marching to the closet. She grabbed the handle and tried to push open the door, but something was stopping it.

Macao shook his head, "Cana, give them a break. The storage closet is _everyone's_ hook up spot, if you hadn't noticed. But don't worry, I'm sure your precious barrels are fine." He came up behind her, taking her arms and gently leading her off the door.

Inside. Gray sat leaning against the door in his boxers, which isn't anything unusual, as Juvia fixed her dress. From what he could see in the dark, she looked really cute sitting next to him, snapping up her vest.

Suddenly, Cana smiled and pushed Macao off her and, in the same motion, threw all her weight against the door. This jolted Gray forward, and the couple stood up. They walked out together, Juvia still fastening her Fairy Tail emblem to the collar of her dress. Mira and Macao winked at them, but Cana simply rushed past to make sure her alcohol was okay and not too defiled.

During dinner at the guild that night, Juvia was sitting on Gray's lap. Apparently, everyone had gone out on requests because they were all in on Mira's plot, and part of it was getting Gray and Juvia alone.

The whole night, the couple kept getting suggestive smiles and winks and comments from fellow guild members, especially those of their friends who were together, like Gajeel and Levy (who had made it official, at least in private, after returning to the guild the night before), and of course, Cana and Macao. After some time, Gray began to feel uncomfortable. The only upside of the attention was that it made Natsu feel awkward for not having a girlfriend too (he saw this as Gray beating him), but that didn't last long since Natsu acted like a five-year-old most of the time and just talked to Lucy, ignoring Gray and Juvia.

"Hey, Juvia…" Gray said when Natsu and Lucy got up to talk to Erza about something, and the two of them were basically alone at the end of the long table.

"Yes?" Juvia responded looking lovingly at him. "Wait, why does Gray-sama look uncomfortable? Should Juvia move?"

She started to shift off of his lap, but he caught her, "No, you're fine. It's just, listen, I love you. I really do. But this is sort of why I hadn't told you or done anything before. A relationship just doesn't feel right for me just now. At least a public one. I'd love to hang out with you and show you how much I love you when we're alone," he explained, giving her a quick peck on the lips, "but it's the way the guild is acting that makes me uncomfortable. For now, we should keep it on the down-low and maybe make it more public later, okay? I only say this because I love you so much, and I don't want any awkwardness within the guild to screw it up."

"Juvia understands," she said. "Juvia feels the same way. Juvia's used to how people acted when she talked about how much she loves Gray-sama, but now it's different. Of course, Juvia loves Gray-sama and thinks his idea is perfect. A private relationship is just what they need."

"You won't feel weird if the whole guild thinks we were together for one day and then broke up?"

"No way! Juvia is the only one who needs to know how Gray-sama really feels. If Juvia knows she has Gray-sama's love when they're alone, then she doesn't care how anyone else sees it."

Gray smiled and kissed her, so happy to belong to a guild of such wonderful people.


End file.
